``Initially, we were hoping to take in about $25,000, so we are thrilled at having done so well,`` auction manager Anita Kirchen said Thursday.

``Everything was donated, so it will all go to the station`s operation.``

All 400 items were on display at the public television station`s studios on Congress Avenue during the evenings of March 28-29.

From Friday to Sunday, March 29-31, the on-air auction was carried live for 25 hours.

Anyone interested in bidding on an item only had to telephone in his offer, which was announced on the air. Other bids also were announced.

The on-air competition ended when only one person was left in the chase. The winning bidder had to pick up the item at the station and pay the agreed price.

One buyer, having won the bid for a hand-crocheted bedspread, hopped into a cab from her Boca Raton home, rushed up to WXEL studios in Boynton, went in while the cab waited, paid her $300, took the bedspread, climbed back into the cab and went home, Kirchen said.

``She was determined to have that bedspread and wasn`t going to give anyone a chance to take it away from her,`` Kirchen said.

WXEL Program Director Jim Moran, a veteran of public television auctions in Tallahassee, said WXEL`s auction earned more money per hour on the average than any he has been connected with.

Kirchen, a rookie in running a television auction, said her ``biggest fear was that we would go on the air and nobody would be viewing.

``When the first call came in on Friday night, I did a double back-flip I was so happy.``

All 400 items auctioned were donated by members of the local community. A 1922 silver dollar, valued at $42, sold for $75.

The Asian pedicab netted $475. A small Persian rug valued at $200 sold for $189. Two polo prints by photographer Ricardo Morales-Hendy, valued at $650 sold for $500.

``One couple bought a sculpture by local artist Evie Raphel and liked it so much they called her and asked her to do another one for them,`` Kirchen said.

The money will be used to bolster local programming at the fledgling station, which first went on the air in mid-1982, Station Manager Sam Barbaro said.

The success of this first auction establishes a possible yearly source of money for programming, induces involvement by the community and makes more people aware of the station, said Barbaro, who is also WXEL executive vice president.